Theranos co-founder Elizabeth Holmes surrendered to the Bureau of Prisons shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday serving his 11-year sentence for defrauding investors. The Bureau, which has the final say on where Holmes will serve her sentence, agreed with the US District Court of Northern California’s recommendation that she serve her prison sentence at the minimum-security all-female federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
“We can confirm that Elizabeth Holmes has arrived at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas, and is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said. CNN. The prison is located 95 miles northwest of Houston, where Holmes grew up, covers about 37 acres, and houses about 650 women.
Women deemed fit to work were assigned jobs in food service roles and factory work, earning between 12 cents and $1.15 an hour. Holmes’ ex-girlfriend and Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was also convicted of fraud and sentenced to 13 years in prisonwhich he started serving last month.
Holmes founded Theranos, the blood testing company, in 2003 that boasted the ability to detect health issues based on a non-invasive blood test, but The Wall Street Journal discovered and subsequently reported that he lied to investors and customers about the reliability of the tests.
Since his conviction, Holmes was released on bail and allowed to live in his permanent residence in the San Diego area with her husband and father of her two children, William Evans. Holmes gave birth to their first child, a son, just weeks before his trial began in July 2021, and they welcomed their second child, three months old, after Holmes was convicted in January last year.
Holmes and Balwani were indicted together five years ago 12 criminal charges surrounding wire fraud after it was revealed that Theranos tests were not always accurate and resulted in misdiagnosed health issues for hundreds of patients. Holmes was charged and convicted to a federal court jury on wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and settled a separate civil securities-fraud charge with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2022. Holmes paid the SEC a $500,000 fine and received a 10-year ban from being an officer or director of any public company.
Holmes was sentenced in November and told the court that Theranos was “my life’s work,” adding, “I gave everything I had to build our company and to save our company. I regret my failures with every cell in my body.”
